Pride, p.18
Pride, page 18
part #5 of The Damning Series
Because when he finally entered me, inch by painful inch, I. Felt. Everything.
I swore he hit areas I’d never known existed before, and stars danced across my vision.
“Holy fuck,” I panted as he began to pound into me, his hands tightening around my ankles on his shoulders. My tits bounced with every thrust of his hips, and from the way his eyes lit up and smoldered, he seemed to like that.
“My cock was made for your pussy,” he growled out, leaning forward slightly to enter me at a new angle. The bond between us thrummed in agreement, and I managed an articulate gasp in response. “You’re so fucking tight, Z. So perfect. Fuck, I missed you. I’m so sorry for leaving, baby. So sorry. I love you. Fuck.”
At this point, I wasn’t even sure he knew what he was saying. His features were slack with pleasure, his eyes glazed.
I sucked my bottom lip as he released one of my ankles and began rubbing gentle circles on my throbbing clit. Jolts of lightning zapped through my nerves, and I gasped his name. At least, I thought it was his name. It honestly sounded like a random string of syllables haphazardly jammed together.
Small moans escaped me as the friction between us built. Lupe pounded into me faster and faster, his hand moving across my clit in tandem to his thrusts. Our eyes collided, and the love in his nearly made my heart stutter to a stop. This man…
I thought I would never see him again, and he thought the same about me. We were two souls who had found each other after what felt like an eternity apart, and I knew this was where we belonged. Together.
My eyelids fluttered shut as bursts of light danced across my vision. I could feel my skin buzzing with energy, even as my muscles shook.
“Oh, fuck!” I screamed as tremors of pleasure wracked through my body.
Lupe pounded into me two more times before his moans turned into a primitive roar.
When he came back down from his orgasm, he collapsed on top of me on the desk, his head nuzzled beneath my chin.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” he whispered against my sweat-soaked skin.
I rubbed a hand up and down his back, across the width of his broad shoulders, and then through his dark brown hair.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” I said softly.
Lupe had found his way back to us, and as soon as Devlin did as well…
I would be whole.
Not even the kings could take that away from me.
Twenty-Three
Jax
B’s thin lips pursed as he rifled through one of the drawers in the surprisingly expansive library, located on the opposite end of the hall that housed his office. Shelf after shelf stood proudly in the center of the room, each one full to the brim with dusty, old books. It seemed as if B was creating an arsenal of knowledge instead of just weapons, and I respected him for that.
Even if he seemed oblivious to the monster attempting to chew on one of the archaic tomes.
Of course, I was beginning to believe the monster wasn’t actually real—no one seemed to notice it except for me—but it claimed my complete and utter attention nonetheless. I blinked my eyes, and still it remained, a figure plucked straight out of my nightmares.
From far away, you might’ve believed it to be a normal man—notwithstanding the fact he was over seven feet tall and the width of a toothpick. But the more you looked at him, the more you began to see the things that were inherently wrong, the things that set him apart from a nightmare or human.
Instead of skin, his body was hewn from nothing but bright pink and red muscle—sinewy, pulsating muscles that wept blood. When he noticed me staring at him, his razor-sharp teeth curled upwards in a mockery of a smile, and a tiny bit of saliva drizzled down the flesh of his chin.
I simply nodded my head in greeting before focusing once more on B as he finally found what he was looking for.
“This will help you return.” He triumphantly held up a pink tablet and swung it back and forth. Bash reached for it expectantly, but B stealthily stepped out of his way before his hand could connect.
“What the fuck is that?” my mage brother demanded with a tight frown.
“It creates a portal that will place you on the opposite side of the Forest of Monsters and Beasts,” B explained. “Our team of mages and the shadow king created it for us to allow easy access back and forth.”
Ryland’s shadows withered around him as his icy-blue eyes narrowed into slits. “That would’ve been rather helpful when we were trying to come here.”
An amused smirk played on B’s lips. “That would’ve been too easy, don’t you think?” Before Ryland could retort, he continued on with a resigned sigh. “Besides, I’m the only one who has access to these tablets, boy. Your father helped to make them, yes, but do you really think we would trust the king with such an easy way to access all of our people?” He clicked his tongue once.
Ryland huffed out a harsh breath but didn’t refute B’s reasoning.
“So we have to find Aaliyah…or at the very least, the hell portal…and figure out how to make that damn dagger that will siphon the kings’ unnatural magic that makes them immortal?” Bash demanded, scrubbing a hand through his ash-blond hair. “Am I hearing that right?”
B’s lips twitched. “Did you think this would be easy?”
“I thought it would be possible,” he countered with a snort. “What you’re suggesting is rather…unimpossible.”
“Impossible,” Killian corrected, and when Bash threw him a withering glare, the incubus squeaked. “Or unimpossible. That works too. Definitely works.”
Over Killian’s shoulder, the seven-foot monster began to glide forward on silent feet. He almost reminded me of Ryland, the way he seemed to fly through the air, his feet not touching the ground. He wore a fine-threaded tunic and pants, and a cape was clasped around his neck, billowing out behind him. A golden crown rested snugly on his red and pink head, tilted slightly to the side. He almost reminded me…
Of the kings we saw in the old book. At least, a version of the kings. The ones in the book had been skeletal, nothing but jaundiced bones and empty eye sockets, but this one was something else entirely.
And he was coming right towards us.
Fear pumped into my veins and rattled my lungs. Swirling, swirling, swirling through my chest like a tornado.
Why couldn’t anyone see the monster except me?
Because it’s not real, you dumbass, I told myself snidely, squeezing my eyelids shut. It’s not real. It’s not real. It’s not real—
Something cold touched my cheek and then caressed the skin of my neck. That splinter of fear turned into an entire sword that jammed itself blade-first into my gut. Panic crawled up my throat.
“Open your eyes, Jax,” a rattling voice whispered. “Open your eyes.”
“There you guys are! We’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
Z.
Her sweet voice slid over me like honey, and when her fingers laced with mine, the pain in my soul abated. She always seemed to bring with her a soft, comforting presence that slid over me like a warm winter jacket.
And when my eyes reopened, the monster was no longer with us. It was just me, my brothers, B, and my sweet, perfect mate…who was currently staring at me with a furrow between her brows.
“You okay?” she whispered, her voice too low for the others to hear.
Love for her licked up my spine as I focused on the feel of her soft palm in mine. All I wanted to do was drag her farther into my arms and bury my face in her pomegranate-scented hair. The compulsion to hold her was undeniable.
“I am now,” I assured her, resisting the urge to just scoop her up and never let her go.
“You guys were gone a while,” Bash teased with a pointed look at a still naked and unashamed Lupe. “Glad to have you back, buddy.” He reached upwards to clap his hand on Lupe’s shoulder, and a blush tinted the bear shifter’s face.
“Glad to be back. I…I just wanted to apologize—”
“No reason to apologize,” Dair assured him softly. “You’re back now, and that’s all that matters.”
“And naked,” B growled out, his face pinched. “Put some damn clothes on.”
Lupe’s blush deepened, color migrating from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. “I don’t really have clothes, sir. I’m Lupe, by the way.” He stalked forward with his hand extended and his cock swinging in the breeze. All of us fixated on that huge appendage as he waited for B to take his proffered hand.
“That actually fits inside of you,” Killian whispered in horror, whipping his head to the side to stare at Z.
Z snorted, twisting in my arms to face the incubus. “Yours is almost as big, Kill.”
“It is?” His brows drew together. “And that’s…a good thing? Because it looks painful.”
“Is it weird that I want to touch it?” Bash murmured, eliciting a surprised laugh from Z. “Just to know if my hand can fit around that mammoth thing?”
“If you touch it, just let me watch,” Z responded, still chuckling.
B’s right eye began to twitch erratically, and his face had turned a little green. “I’m going to need to cut off my ears. No… I’m going to need to first burn my office to the ground, then cut off my ears, and finally kill myself so I can forget this ever happened.”
Lupe, who still had his hand extended, slowly dropped it to his side with a sheepish smile. “I…um…am sorry about your office. We didn’t…um…destroy anything. We just…you know…on the desk.”
“Shut up before I stab you.”
“Noted.” Lupe took a huge step back until he was shoulder to shoulder with Killian, who was still ogling the shifter’s cock as if he were trying to figure the ins and outs of it. Or just the ins…like how that thing could fit in a vagina.
I snorted at my own joke and wrapped my arms around Z’s waist, resting my chin on her head.
B murmured something inarticulate as he stalked out of the library and reappeared a second later with a pair of trousers. They were slightly too small for Lupe’s massive frame, but at least they covered up everything. Mostly. I was pretty sure we all could see the outline of his erection through the fabric.
“Now,”—B clapped his hands together, apparently determined to get the conversation back on track—“I’ll send you guys off with all of the research I’ve gathered. Keep in mind, it’s not much, and I don’t feel comfortable sending the actual book back with you guys, but here are the loose translations and replicas of the images in the book.” He handed Z a stack of papers, which she took immediately.
“Thank you, B.” Her voice turned small. “I mean it. Thank you for everything.”
For the first time since I knew him, the scary assassin’s face softened, drawing attention to the lines carved into his cheeks and around his eyes, belying his true age.
“Be careful, Z. Three of you went to the capital, and so far…” He ran a shaky hand through his gray-streaked hair. “And so far, only one of you has returned to me.”
“Mali isn’t dead yet,” Z pointed out, and I thought she sounded a little defensive on behalf of her ex-best friend and the woman who betrayed her. But then again, this was Z, and she had the greatest capacity for love than anyone I had ever met.
“No.” B’s lips compressed into a grim line. “But if she’s working for Aaliyah, she may as well be.”
Z looked as if she wanted to argue, but one squeeze from me relaxed her back into my embrace.
“We should go,” Bash told us all. “We don’t know how long it’ll take us to find Aaliyah’s home, and we need to get back to the capital before the kings get suspicious.”
“They’re already suspicious,” Ryland interjected with a snort of derision. “They just don’t believe we’re truly a threat.”
“We also need to find Devlin,” Killian piped up. “That is, if he’s not already waiting for us at the edge of the forest.”
Lupe’s eyes bulged, and he glanced desperately from side to side, as if only now realizing that the genie wasn’t with us. “What about Devlin? What do you mean? Why do you need to find him?”
“There’s a lot we need to catch you up on, brother,” Dair said gently.
The huge shifter lowered his head in what almost appeared like shame.
Did he really blame himself for what happened?
Z left my embrace to step towards B and hug him tightly. He went rigid as her tiny arms twined around his waist before he held her back, lowering his cheek to her head.
“Take care of yourself, old man.” Her voice was muffled from speaking into his shirt.
A low chuckle left his lips as he gripped her shoulders and pushed her back a step. “You too, kid.” He looked as if he wanted to say more—his lips opening and then immediately smashing together—before he eventually sighed and placed the tiny pink pill into Z’s hands. “I told your mates, but I’ll tell you as well. This tablet will bring you to the edge of the forest, so you won’t need to go through it twice.”
“Thank you, B.” Z’s hand slowly closed over the tablet as she took a shuddering breath, one that sounded as if it were being processed through mutilated lungs. “May we see each other again.”
A soft smile carved itself into his haggard face. “We will.”
Z turned away quickly, as if overcome by a strong emotion, and I wasted no time pulling her into my arms once more. Bash placed his hand on her shoulder, while Killian gripped her hand. Dair and Lupe both touched her waist, and Ryland practically draped himself over her back.
“You guys ready?” she asked.
Without waiting for us to respond, she dropped the tablet onto the ground. Immediately, a cloud of pink smoke erupted around us, swirling through the air like a typhoon. Killian coughed and twisted his head to the side as the smoke curled up my nostrils and tightened around my throat like a noose.
One second we were in the makeshift library, deep within the mountain, and the next…
The next we were standing directly before a startled Axel, with the Forest of Monsters and Beasts looming maliciously behind us.
All of us staggered away from each other as we struggled to replenish our lungs with fresh, untainted air. Fuck, I hated portal traveling.
My stomach rebelled painfully as I squeezed my eyelids shut, a reminder to myself to breathe through the pain searing apart my flesh.
“What the fuck?” Axel exclaimed, his eyes wide with alarm. He focused on Z. “What’s going on, little sister?”
Z slowly straightened from her half bent-over position and smoothed back a strand of golden hair that had fallen forward.
“We got what we needed,” she responded evasively, her eyes shifting over the crowd of humans surrounding us.
And then she froze, her muscles going rigid and horror splaying across her face. I immediately followed the direction of her gaze, and my own body locked tight at what I saw.
Standing on the outskirts of the crowd was my brother—dark, curly hair brushed away from his face, olive-toned skin slick with sweat, and violet eyes flaring with hatred and anger. Behind him, smiling smugly, was—
“Aaliyah,” Z breathed.
Twenty-Four
Z
“Aaliyah,” I breathed in horror, my gaze latching on to the woman who claimed to be my sister before immediately flickering towards the man directly in front of her.
Devlin.
My genie.
My mate.
His violet eyes widened when he caught sight of me, the anger draining from them like water in a strainer. Emotions tightened his features as he took a desperate step towards me, his arms extended, before immediately jerking to an abrupt stop. His body seized, his teeth gritting together as if to hold in a scream, and then he dropped to his knees at Aaliyah’s feet.
“What the fuck did you do to him?” I screamed, reaching automatically for my dagger…before remembering I hadn’t placed it back on after my shower.
Fuck.
“He’s fine, sister.” Aaliyah waved her hand in the air as if she could somehow swat away my ire. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Let him go.” I ground my jaw tightly and curled my hands into fists at my sides.
This woman…
I hated her.
I hated her with every fiber of my being.
It was the type of hatred that twisted up my insides and sent my world careening off its axis. It was potent and acidic, caustic and bitter, and it flowed through my veins like a damn toxin. Even staring into her smug, beautiful face had black spots erupting across my vision, distorting the scene before me.
“Z…” Devlin struggled to get to his feet. “You’re alive. You’re alive.” He seemed to be repeating those two words over and over again, disbelief lacing his tone.
And despite everything in my body screaming at me to look at him, to free him, I kept my attention fixed pointedly on the she-bitch herself.
Aaliyah had always been beautiful, but the hard jawline she’d been blessed with had never looked so sharp before. Her reddish-orange hair cascaded around her shoulders in loose curls, the color accentuated by the glittering green gown she wore. The smile adorning her face was a direct contrast to the glare marring my own.
What the fuck did she want?
To kill me?
To kill my mates?
I wouldn’t let that happen.
B’s story played on a continuous loop in my mind.
Was it true?
Was Aaliyah truly the demon who had murdered her seven mates in order to avenge her sister? Be with her sister? Something about the story didn’t sit right with me. It percolated in my stomach like the rising and falling of a wave, destroying everything it came into contact with under a torrent of ice-cold water.
“Don’t look at me like that, Gabrielle,” Aaliyah mused, stepping around Devlin and sashaying towards me.
The humans had gone very, very still, and I spotted Davia near the front of the crowd, her sword raised hesitantly. One glance at my stricken expression made her quickly lower it.
